Pentagon's Official FLIR1 Release, April 2020
DoD Official Release of Three Unclassified Navy UAP Videos (FLIR1, GIMBAL, GOFAST). FLIR1.webm
The Pentagon's April 2020 formal declassification and public release of three Navy FLIR infrared videos, FLIR1 (2004), GIMBAL (2015), and GOFAST (2015), with an official statement that the objects depicted remain unidentified.
Brief
On 27 April 2020, the U.S. Department of Defense and Naval Air Systems Command formally declassified three infrared videos captured by Navy aircrew, releasing them to the public under the assertion that doing so would not compromise sensitive collection capabilities. The videos, FLIR1, GIMBAL, and GOFAST, had circulated unofficially for years before this release. DoD's accompanying statement confirmed that the aerial objects depicted in all three recordings were never identified. The release represented the first official government acknowledgment of the footage's authenticity and the unresolved nature of the encounters.
Metadata
- Agency
- U.S. Department of Defense / Naval Air Systems Command
- Release
- 2020-04-27
- Type
- VIDEO • .webm
- Length
- 4.8 M
- Classification
- UNCLASSIFIED
- Tags
- FLIR infrared, Navy, 2004, 2015, FLIR1, GIMBAL, GOFAST, unidentified aerial phenomena, airborne sensor
Key points
- Three infrared videos were formally declassified: FLIR1 (encounter date 2004), GIMBAL (2015), and GOFAST (2015).
- The releasing authority was the U.S. Department of Defense in coordination with Naval Air Systems Command.
- DoD stated publicly that release of the videos would not reveal sensitive capabilities or sources.
- All three objects depicted in the videos were confirmed by DoD to remain unidentified at time of release.
- The official release date was 27 April 2020, formalizing footage that had been in unofficial circulation.
Most interesting
- FLIR1 documents a 2004 encounter, making it the oldest of the three events by eleven years, yet it was released simultaneously with the 2015 footage in 2020.
- The DoD's explicit language that objects 'remain unidentified' is rare in official government communications and constitutes a direct, unhedged admission rather than a deferral to ongoing investigation.
- All three videos had been leaked and widely circulated before official release, meaning the declassification functioned largely as authentication rather than revelation.
- Naval Air Systems Command's co-involvement signals the release was coordinated through the acquisition and airworthiness chain, not only public affairs, suggesting operational relevance was weighed.
- The simultaneous release of footage spanning an eleven-year gap (2004–2015) implies a deliberate editorial decision to group UAP encounters by sensor type rather than by date or unit.